Walking Through This World
by 1rosebyanyothername
Summary: ...Blaise continued to look at her, dumbstruck, for a moment and then regarded the very compromising position she had found him in. Oh, well. There was nothing for it. He took a deep breath and then smirked down at her. "I'm knitting a sweater."


**So I took a break from my epilogues, which are wonderful (shameless plug) and you should read them, to write a relatively short flight of fancy in regards to our favorite supporting characters, because who says that Luna always has to be silly and Blaise always has to be a bastard…or a mysterious and sexy italian??? Anyway, a short fic about two people who meet briefly without falling madly and passionately in love or raping each other or anything out of the ordinary, because two teenagers can be thrown together in a world gone mad and come out of the situation with nothing more than the possibility of a new friend.**

**Alright I'm done**

**Loosely Loosely Loosely inspired by the song Desperado by the Eagles, but not really enough to even merit a disclaimer.  
**

**I am not the owner of the wonderful world of Harry Potter. **

**Enjoy.**

Blaise Zabini bent his knees and jumped, hooking his fingers on the edge of the wall. With the barest grunt of effort, he pulled himself up so his arms supported his weight and then swung one leg over so that he was sitting astride the wall. He paused for a moment to catch his breath, considering his next step. The tall seventh year's normally haughty features were uncharacteristically anxious as he surveyed his surroundings.

Just as he was about satisfied that the coast was clear, an unfamiliar voice floated up from directly below him. "What are you doing?" Looking down, Blaise saw a girl looking up at him, her face framed with a mass of wavy, dirty-blond hair. She didn't look angry, or threatening, just slightly curious. She was around his own age, maybe a year or two younger, and looked vaguely familiar; though Blaise was sure he had never spoken to her before.

Blaise continued to look at her, dumbstruck, for a moment and then regarded the very compromising position she had found him in. Oh, well. There was nothing for it. He took a deep breath and then smirked down at her.

"I'm knitting a sweater."

The girl sighed. "I expect you're being sarcastic," she said, "People are always being sarcastic at me because they think I don't get it." She blinked at him owlishly, "I get it, you know. I'm not stupid." Blaise blinked at her, nonplussed.

"What?"

"You really should get down; if Amycus or Alecto catches you you'll be punished, even if you are in Slytherin." Blaise shook his head.

"The wonder twins don't patrol this far outside the castle, they don't know that there's a way in and out over this – hang on, how did you know I was in Slytherin?" Blaise looked down at his plain black shirt and muggle trousers. He wasn't wearing anything that would even have marked him as a student, let alone a Slytherin. The girl shrugged.

"You're Blaise Zabini." Blaise looked at her, openmouthed, for a moment, and then swung his other leg over the wall and half-jumped half-slid down to the ground. He landed lightly next to her and peered at her face.

"Do I know you?" The girl smiled at him. She had a nice smile, Blaise noted, it was honest; a smile for its own sake.

"I wouldn't expect you to." She held out her hand, "I'm Luna, Luna Lovegood." Blaise shook the proffered hand cautiously, trying to remember where he had heard that name before. It hit him suddenly as she released his hand.

"_You're_ the girl with the lion hat?" he asked incredulously. Luna laughed.

"Yes, I am." She said simply. Then she looked at him, suddenly stern, "and we really should be getting back to the castle." She turned away from him and began to make her way slowly across the grounds towards the school. Blaise followed her, catching up easily.

The castle was dark; no lights burned in any of the windows, and the torches over the main entrance did not offer enough light to see by. The two students could only see the school clearly because of the over bright full moon hanging above it. They walked together in silence for a few minutes, until Blaise began to feel slightly uncomfortable. Just as he was wracking his brains for something to say, however, Luna spoke.

"So what _were_ you doing?" Blaise shrugged.

"I got bored; I went into Hogsmeade to have a drink."

"A drink?" Blaise nodded. "You snuck out of the castle at night, after curfew, to have a drink. By yourself?"

"Sure, why not?" Luna appeared to consider this.

"I don't know," she said, "I suppose it seems like if you're going to be incredibly reckless and stupid it would be something you would do with friends." Blaise scoffed.

"I wasn't incredibly reckless; I knew I wouldn't get caught."

"I caught you." Luna reminded him. He grimaced.

"You don't count." She laughed lightly and Blaise gave her a half apologetic smile before continuing. "And anyway, I don't have friends. I don't want friends. Friends hold you back."

"Hold you back?"

"Sure, you can't go anywhere if you've got emotional attachments keeping you in one place." Luna was silent for a moment. Blaise glanced down at her and saw that she was biting her lower lip gently, looking thoughtful.

"So it's about freedom." She said.

"Pardon?"

"It's about freedom." She said again. "You're afraid that if you let yourself become attached to anyone you'll lose your freedom. You're scared of what might happen if you stay in one place for too long so you don't want to be tied down." She nodded, as though she was agreeing with herself. "Freedom." She said again, more quietly.

Blaise looked at her, dumbfounded. That seemed to be happening a lot, tonight, he reflected briefly. "Yeah…I guess. That's one way of looking at it." He frowned. "I wouldn't say I'm scared though, I just want to be able to go where I want, when I want, and not have to answer to anyone. Does that make sense?" Blaise looked at Luna and was surprised to see her looking at with something akin to pity.

"Yes," she said sadly, "it does. I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?"

"Yes, because as long as you walk through this world by yourself, you won't be free."

"Come again."

"That's your cage, don't you see?" Luna looked impatient. It was the first time Blaise had seen any emotion on her besides the quiet calm she seemed to emanate.

"See what?" He asked. Luna looked around.

"You didn't catch a wrack spurt, did you? I thought Slytherin's were usually sharp." She sighed. "Imagine the world is a street, and you're walking down this street by yourself and it starts to rain right? So you want somewhere to go to get out of the cold, but you can't, because there are no open doors, no one to turn to. You're trapped." She looked at him, her big blue eyes sad. "I'm sorry."

Blaise opened and closed his mouth a few times, but no words came. Finally, he gave up and looked forward, his brow furrowed.

The two students walked to remainder of the journey in silence. Their steps slowed as they approached the huge doors that opened into the entrance hall. Blaise held up a hand for Luna to stop and peered cautiously around the door. He drew back sharply and grabbed Luna's hand, pulling her at a run into the darker shadows under one of the big windows. "Alecto." He mouthed. She nodded silently, her eyes wide. She looked up suddenly as they heard a shout and then the unmistakable voice of Filch drifting through the open doors.

"Yes ma'am, I'm sure if there are students out of bed I'll find 'em ma'am. Don't you worry ma'am." They heard his shuffling walk coming down the stairs. Blaise looked at Luna, horrified, but she was already moving. Motioning him to follow her she ran, half-crouched, towards the greenhouses, keeping in the shadows and pausing every few feet to listen. Blaise followed her, wondering what her plan was, or if she even had a plan. Just as Blaise was beginning to consider going back over the wall and sleeping in Hogsmeade, she stopped.

Blaise looked around. They were in the shadow of Greenhouse four, where professor sprout kept all of the really big plants. Luna opened the door and slipped inside. Blaise followed, shutting the door carefully behind him before turning around.

Luna was rooting around behind the cupboard that held the supplies. "What are you doing?" Blaise whispered.

"I'm knitting a sweater." The girl retorted without looking up. The reply was so unexpected that Blaise almost forgot himself and laughed aloud. As it was, he had to shove his fist in his mouth to muffle the noise. As he was getting his laughter under control, Blaise heard a soft "aha!" from behind the cupboard and immediately moved towards Luna to see what she had found.

Blaise gasped as he moved around the table that was obscuring his vision and saw a gaping hole in the floor of the greenhouse. "What is _that_?" he asked incredulously.

Luna looked up at him from where she was kneeling on the floor. There was a smudge of dirt on her nose from the soil on the greenhouse floor. "It's a secret passageway into the castle," she said, "Neville and I found it earlier this year. It leads into the broom closet on the fifth floor." She stood up and motioned for him to go first. "Go on, then." She urged. Blaise looked at the hole doubtfully, but complied.

"You're sure this leads to the castle, right?" He questioned, lowering himself gingerly into the hole, "only I've never heard anything about it."

"That doesn't mean much, there are lots of things that people haven't seen or heard of, that doesn't mean they're not real of credible. Take the crumple-horned snorkak, for example, there has never been any proof that they exist, but –"

"Okay, okay," Blaise cut her off, "I'll take your word for it." He let himself drop, squeezing his eyes shut. He landed heavily on slightly damp, cool dirt. Blaise opened his eyes and looked around, lighting his wand. It was a narrow, high tunnel that looked like it began to climb steeply a little way ahead of him. Luna dropped down a few seconds later. She brushed herself off and pointed her wand upward. Blaise heard the sound of a trapdoor sliding shut and thought he caught the sound of the cupboard sliding back into place.

"Let's go," Luna said, lighting her wand as well and beginning to walk up the passage.

"How far does this thing go?" asked Blaise, wiping sweat off his forehead with one hand. They had been walking uphill in the humid tunnel for about twenty minutes. Luna looked around thoughtfully.

"Well," she said, "we've been walking for about a kilometer, so I'd say we've got about two kilometers left to go." Blaise was shocked.

"We're not even half way?" He asked, his eyes widening, "Will we even make it back by morning?" Luna looked at him, her bright blue eyes large in the wand light.

"Yes," she said, "I expect we shall." She looked around again. "Here is as good a place as any to rest for a bit, we'll move faster if we don't tire ourselves out too quickly." She stepped lightly over to the side of the tunnel where the ground rose up into the walls and sat down, looking at Blaise expectantly. Blaise sighed and moved to sit next to her, using his wand to light up the area before he sat, making sure he wasn't sitting in anything unsavory.

"So what were you doing out?" he asked, "You don't seem the type to sneak out for the sake of sneaking out."

"I'm not; I was looking for –for Neville." Luna looked at him briefly and then went back to staring at her shoes.

"For who?"

"Neville Longbottom."

"_Longbottom_? Where has _he_ gone?" Luna looked at him miserably.

"I don't know! He had detention with the Carrows last night and he never came back. He wasn't there for classes today either. I thought maybe he had left and I was looking for him in Hogsmeade." Her voice faded to a whisper. "I'm so scared for him."

Blaise realized with a start that she was crying. He looked around helplessly, unsure how to deal with a crying girl. "Um" he said "hey, I'm sure Longbottom's fine, the Carrows would kill a student."

This didn't seem to help, Blaise noticed, as it only caused Luna to sob convulsively and continue crying harder than ever.

"Not kill, I mean, they wouldn't –er he'll be ok, don't worry," Blaise finished lamely. He patted Luna awkwardly on the back, praying for an end to the tears.

Miraculously, she did.

"You're right," she said, still sniffling quietly.

"I am?" Blaise asked incredulously, "I mean, of course I am." Luna gave him a slightly pitying look.

"Yes," she said, "Neville's strong, he can manage himself." She stood up slowly, still crying silently, "we should keep going."

Blaise complied, helping her steady herself as they walked the short distance back down the path. They started off again; Blaise could feel the ground beginning to climb more steeply. He glanced to the side and saw tears still streaming down Luna's face. Silently, he reached out and took her hand. She stiffened slightly in surprise, but didn't pull away.

They continued the rest of their journey together in silence. Blaise held Luna's hand until they came to the end of the tunnel. She smiled at him and squeezed his hand lightly before pulling out of his grasp and opening the trapdoor. She put a slender finger to her lips and reached up, pulling herself through the hole and into the closet above. Blaise waited below, anxiously watching for her signal. It was with a feeling of acute relief that he saw her hand beckon through the hole and pulled himself up to join her.

She was peering through a knothole in the wooden door of the closet as he came up behind her. She glanced at him once and then pushed to door open slowly and stepped out.

They were standing in an empty corridor on the fifth floor. An open window ahead of them showed the very first hint of sunrise beginning to appear over the horizon.

Blaise grinned at her, suddenly giddy with relief and exhaustion. "Now the trick is getting back our common rooms," he said, "You don't happen to have a secret passageway for that do you?"

Luna laughed, "Unfortunately, you're on your own for that," she replied, "think you can manage?"

Blaise scoffed "Piece of cake, I do this all the time remember?" he chuckled. Suddenly he went quite and looked at Luna. She was smiling serenely at him, there was something far too understanding about that smile, Blaise decided. "So, erm, I guess this is it," He finished lamely. He held out a hand awkwardly. Luna laughed again and, bypassing his hand completely, hugged him and kissed his cheek lightly.

"You know, you're not so bad, for a Slytherin of course." She smiled at him once more before turning and walking toward the stairs that would take her up to the Ravenclaw tower.

"Hey!" Blaise called out from behind her. Luan stopped and turned around, her head tilted slightly as she looked questioningly at Blaise. He seem to be struggling with something

"Yes?"

He sighed, "Thanks," he said quietly, "You know, for walking with me."

Luna smiled, it was a nice smile, Blaise noted, it was honest; a smile for its own sake. "Anytime."

**There you go, hope you liked it. Let me know if you did, let me know if you didn't (constructive criticism is a girl's best friend =]) **

**Thanks for reading**

**1rosebyanyothername**


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